People with Type 2 diabetes who are trying to lose weight seem to do well with a calorie-controlled diet and the weight-loss pill Meridia ®, according to a new study.

Dr. J. Bruce Redmon and colleagues from the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, examined the effects of combining several weight loss strategies in a study involving 59 overweight or obese subjects with Type 2 diabetes.

The participants were randomized to the combination approach for 2 years, or to a standard weight loss program for 1 year followed by the combination therapy weight loss program for 1 year (control group).

The people in the standard weight loss programs were prescribed individualized diets and an exercise program. The combination approach featured daily Meridia (generic name, sibutramine) and use of meal replacement products (Slim Fast) to lower calorie intake, including a low-calorie-diet week every two months when only meal replacement products were allowed.

A total of 48 patients completed the study, including 23 in the combination group and 25 in the control group. The results are published in the medical journal Diabetes Care.

After 2 years, subjects in the combination group had lost an average of 4.6 kilograms, or 10 pounds. They also showed significant decreases in long-term blood glucose levels, fat mass, lean body mass, and blood pressure.

Little weight loss occurred the control group in the first year of standard therapy. But by the end of the second year, after switching to the combination strategy, reductions in blood glucose and weight were similar to those seen in the other group.

The combination strategy was “simple and easy for subjects to understand and implement,” the investigators note, at a cost of about $6 per day.

“Our data suggest that weight loss at 2 years of 4-5 kg (about 4 percent of initial body weight) for people with type 2 diabetes can produce improvement in diabetes that are likely to be clinically significant,” Redmon’s team concludes.

SOURCE: Diabetes Care, June 2005.